Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, November/December 2021, pp. 31-33
Canada Calling
By Candice Bodnaruk
CANADA ENDED its evacuation efforts in Afghanistan at the end of August, and now the Afghan community and its supporters are asking what comes next for their loved ones left in the region.
Ariana Yaftali, who is originally from Afghanistan and is co-founder of the Afghan-Canadian Women’s Organization in Winnipeg, said her group wants to advocate for everybody, “because they are all Afghan.”
In a recent interview with the Washington Report, she said, “I think Canada responded a little bit later than they should have.” Right now, Afghan families are hearing words and promises but no details and they’re feeling like the international community has abandoned Afghanistan. There was no solid plan for the international community’s gradual withdrawal in order to leave Afghanistan as a proud, self-sufficient country. Instead, Yaftali argues, the world just withdrew, leaving behind a recipe for a humanitarian disaster.
Canada’s Acting Chief of Defense Staff, General Wayne Eyre said in a press briefing that the effort to evacuate Afghanistan was one of the largest, most complex and dangerous operations in modern history. He also pointed out that Canada was one of the last countries to cease evacuation operations in the country.
“The conditions our armed forces were working under were unlike anything we’ve seen in decades—even during our previous mission in Afghanistan. The threats around the airport were significant and dynamic. Non-combatant evacuation operations are inherently complex,” he said.
Alexander Cohen, press secretary for Canada’s Minister of Immigration, said in anticipation of the evacuation, Canada implemented a special immigration program for Afghans and their families who have contributed to Canada’s efforts in Afghanistan for the past 20 years. The program includes Afghan nationals (and their family members) whose employment involved a significant and/or enduring relationship with the government of Canada, such as interpreters, cooks, drivers, cleaners, construction workers, security guards, and locally engaged staff who supported the Canadian Armed Forces and the Embassy of Canada in Afghanistan and their family members.
While the Canadian effort to rescue as many people as they could was highly appreciated, the number of people evacuated was not even close to 5,000, which Yaftali called, “a drop in the bucket kind of thing.”
Yaftali wished that peacekeepers had remained, but neither the Canadian government nor the U.N. advocated for that, and as a result, she said, “we failed Afghanistan.”
The families she has spoken to can’t even find a number to call for immigration. Yaftali, who has worked in the field of immigration, settlement and refugee sponsorship for 18 years, also said the process for family class sponsorship to Canada should be easier and more flexible. Canada’s current rules for immigration sponsorship defines family as a spouse and children under 21. It’s a longer process to bring older members, like grandparents. She said the family class category also refers to de facto members of your family that you are adopting or who are financially and emotionally dependent on you, who are also under 21.
Yaftali said the Afghan community has the capacity and willingness to quickly assist incoming families, and they are not going to become a government burden. Families are willing “to be responsible for 12 months of resettlement, financially, emotionally, everything....privately sponsored refugees are already doing really well,” she reported.
Yaftali’s organization is asking the Canadian government to increase the number of refugees and to expedite the process, as well as to make the immigration process smoother and easier so that people escape the dangerous zone faster. “We are working on drafting some recommendations,” she said, emphasizing “the need for protection and security for women, children, minorities, Afghan Jews, Christians, Hindus and Hazaras. For everybody we want to advocate because they are all Afghan,” she stressed.
Yaftali said many people have contacted her about their difficulty meeting Canada’s current requirements for Afghan refugees, including presenting a recognition letter from the U.N. Refugee Agency, UNHCR. “They are just pleading for help because they can’t even get out of their own house, let alone go to the UNHCR office to get those papers.” It could be easier to arrange private sponsorships, the same way it was for Syrians and the Yazidis, she said.
Yaftali proposes that Canadians use their own rights and privileges to pressure their government and politicians to advocate for and support Afghans who remain stuck in Afghanistan. Give priority to ordinary people whose houses have been shot at or whose lives have been threatened to help them get out, she stated.
Meanwhile in another recent telephone interview with the Washington Report, journalist and human rights activist Sally Armstrong said, “Although the government of Afghanistan fell more quickly than anyone could have imagined, everyone who follows Afghanistan knew something like this was coming,” she said.
Armstrong, who spent 20 years working in the region, said the kind-hearted response from the Canadian people was “quite typical” because Canadians stand up in the face of injustice. Armstrong recalled how Canada welcomed Syrian refugees here only recently. “They clearly have the muscle memory to do it again because I have been hearing from people all across the country asking how they can help,” she said.
Armstrong is also confident that Canadians know how to make people feel welcome. She noted that Canadians are ready to support newcomers and help them find jobs, apartments and restart their lives.
Meanwhile, Canadian Immigration Minister Marco Mendicino, said Canada’s commitment to the people of Afghanistan will continue. He pointed out that Canada is the first country in the world to announce a humanitarian program focused on women leaders, ethnic minorities, journalists and LGBTQ people.
“I want to express my solidarity with the people of Afghanistan and the Afghan diaspora here in Canada as we prepare to welcome the 20,000 Afghan refugees. I know Canadians will open their homes and hearts,” Mendicino said during an August press conference.
CANADIAN WHO SPENT THREE YEARS IN A FRENCH PRISON TO BE RETRIED FOR 1980 BOMB ATTACK
Canadian Dr. Hassan Diab spent three years, much of it in solitary confinement, in a French prison accused in an October 1980 attack on a synagogue in Paris. Although Diab was a student writing exams at Beirut University at that time, French investigators claimed he was actually living in France and planted the bomb.
In 2008, French authorities directed the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) to arrest Diab, who was living a quiet life in Canada. Although a Canadian extradition judge stated at the time that the evidence against Diab was very confusing, the judge said that his interpretation of Canada’s extradition law left him no choice but to extradite Diab to France.
In January 2018, French investigating judges decided there was no case against him because of lack of evidence, released him from prison and allowed him to return to Canada.
After his arrest, Diab lost his job at Carleton University in Ottawa when various groups put pressure on the university to fire him, and today, he still remains on a no-fly list.
Now, Diab is facing the prospect of yet another jail term in France, as that country’s government moves to retry him, in absentia, in France’s anti-terrorism court. The specter of a second extradition request is very real.
Roger Clark, a former president of Amnesty International Canada, has been a Diab supporter for the past six years. “There is something very, very wrong when a Canadian can be sent to a foreign country where the foreign country can then begin the process of investigating. It’s not as though there was a trial sitting waiting for him, not at all,” Clark said in a recent telephone interview. “In Diab’s case, the investigation of his possible connection to the event only began once he was returned to France.”
He said, while Diab had a solid alibi, investigators in the case relied on secret intelligence, which means there were no witnesses to be cross-examined. “In a Canadian court of law secret intelligence cannot be used to prosecute someone,” Clark explained.
Moreover, Clark added that today, in 2021, there is significantly less evidence against Diab, including fingerprint evidence and handwriting analysis used before but were shown to be faulty. However, he stressed that there is great political pressure inside France to send Diab to trial again.
“Hassan is a very strong individual, psychologically. He would have to be in order to undergo 39 months in a French prison,” Clark said, adding that the cloud that was hanging over him in 2008 is now darker than it was then.
“What happened to Hassan could happen to any Canadian,” Clark said. He explained that a lot of people would like to see Canada’s extradition act reformed.
Diab’s supporters launched a postcard campaign during Canada’s recent federal election, asking Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to immediately suspend Canada’s extradition treaty with France.
“There is a lot of pressure from right-wing groups that I would describe as Zionist,” Clark said, adding that many of the groups wield a lot of weight and that for many lobby groups it’s better to have someone found guilty even though none of the evidence actually points to him.
“Hassan’s case may be down on a long list of cases for the anti-terrorist court. It could be three years away. It depends on whether it would be politically useful for the French to proceed with a trial against Hassan at this time,” Clark explained.
“We have a very wide network, it would run into the thousands,” Clark said, pointing out that many Members of Parliament (MPs) have been supportive of the campaign, largely from the New Democratic Party. “There is a lot of real support for Hassan, not just among ordinary people, but also among human rights organizations in Canada,” he said, adding that Canada should signal to the French authorities that the extradition process is wrong and to continue it would be a miscarriage of justice.
Candice Bodnaruk has been involved in Palestinian issues for the past 14 years through organizations such as the Canadian BDS Coalition and Peace Alliance Winnipeg. Her political action started with feminism and continued with the peace movement, first with the No War on Iraq Coalition in 2003 in Winnipeg.
